Hey DejaVu, have you looked into some of the research on crystaline nanotubules yet? The plan is to build single electron switches by basically allowing tunneling between adjacent cells. To be frank I never have fully got a handle on electron tunneling concepts so it seems kind of like a shot in the dark attempt in my mind, but maybe you see something there...
I'm guessing your research at this time primarily involves SOI techniques and high-K dielectrics. What are you guys looking into at this point? 10 Ghz seems to be a pretty lofty goal with current technologies. 5 Ghz should be easy enough with the P4 design, but that means the ALUs are going to be running at 10 Ghz, which ought to be interesting.
I don't think Moore's law is going to hold much longer. My opinion is that the power dissipation combined with smaller and smaller transistor sizes is going to be a very large problem, especially considering the current trend in increasing transistor count dramatically for additional cache memory etc. One thing is for sure, heatsink design is going to have to improve.
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Rendar, EE salaries depend highly on where and who you work for. In Oregon $45,000 - $70,000 is about the average, but some very senior guys can make 1/4 mil a year with the stock options and benefits. I definately wouldn't suggest taking EE in college if you are just doing it for the money. It's HARD work. After your first year and a half you have no real life to speak of.
I'll be going into my final year at the end of this month. (Oregon State University) Last year I spent about 6 - 10 hours PER DAY between studying, class, and working near the end of the term. If you do take EE you are going to discover just how large a field it is and how hopelessly little you can hope to learn in 5 or even 8 years. You really have to specialize in one area and try to learn all you can there.
Last year I took classes dealing with:
Electrical and magnetic fields
Digital Circuit design
Analog Circuit design
Microprocessor Archetechture
Wave propagation and transmission lines
Semiconductor materials
Electric motors and transformers
Thermodynamics
Anthropology ( LOL, it's a requirement. I guess it's supposed to improve your attitude.
)
You can see just how much they cover in just one year, and all of it requires pretty intense math and computer skills. (Except anthropology.
) Once you get used to doing that much math it's actually pretty interesting, and it certainly makes you appreciate just what's been achieved in the past 100 years or so in Electronics.
If you want to know more about OSU's engineering program, send me an e-mail and I'd be glad to tell you more: bloom@engr.orst.edu
